I talked with Anses about many things concerning void navigation, especially details about the ancestral fleet ships back then—for instance, how they used limited technology to maintain a sufficiently powerful, long-lasting Order Field, ensuring that the massive ark fleet could survive in the void for extended periods. We also discussed the ecological environment and material circulation aboard the arks. Since the ancestors had no technology for creating matter, ark supplies were limited, and I was very curious what the earliest self-sustaining material circulation system in Shilin civilization had looked like. I probably couldn't understand the practical technical details, but Anses wasn't a scientist himself either, so he told me about life aboard those ships from the perspective of a captain and a half-informed layman.
To me, it was back then. To Anses, it had happened "just over a month ago."
It was obvious that only these topics could truly get the Old Ancestor excited. Things like civilization's future, the Empire's political system, and the state of the void held no interest for him at all. That was understandable. Anses had spent most of his life aboard arks. He had joined the ship maintenance forces after leaving the training center in his teens, moved through more than ten positions, and for decades everything in his life had revolved around ships. Anses had also learned through various channels about the Empire's current power. He knew that modern Imperial starships could complete in a few breaths the information displacement—that was, "distance traveled" through the void—that those primitive arks had needed months to cover. He knew that stronger Shilin Apostles could even survive alone in the void for long periods, and after the entire race completed its deification, this void adaptability would improve further. He marveled at the Macro World's transit network and was